


Opening doors

by Nedrika



Series: P4 Memes [4]
Category: Persona 4
Genre: Interrogation, M/M, Shovel Talk, Walking In On Someone, but not really
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-01
Updated: 2019-06-01
Packaged: 2020-04-05 19:52:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,351
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19047223
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nedrika/pseuds/Nedrika
Summary: Kinkmeme fill + souyo day 7, Relationship reveal





	Opening doors

**Author's Note:**

> Dojima evaluates Souji's bf or gf after catching them together. Bonus points if it's a guy and Dojima is clearly trying to be cool about it but he keeps evaluating the person in terms of a traditional girlfriend "Oh well, his looks are pretty unusual but I'm sure he'd shape up nicely in a dress-- err, gown-- err, suit!" Also bonus points for him making repeated Freudian slips--"he seems like a really erect--I mean, upright, guy"--because he's trying not to think about how he just nearly walked in on them doing whatever. Lots of crack and awkwardness all around would be really great!

It had been an interminably long day. The department had finally rustled up a replacement for Adachi, and while they were competent enough every day was filled with training and micro-corrections that led him into a constant state of vigilance that had lasted for weeks. He knew they were getting there, however slowly, but the blow to morale that had come about from the reveal of their mystery killer had hollowed out a force that had been craving the bittersweet victory that came with a hard-earned apprehension. It would take them all a while to be back to their old productivity. But hey, the rookie would be out from under his feet and he would have to be seriously unlucky to get partnered to another psychopath. He’d been making an effort to be home more often and see to Nanako and Souji but it simply hadn’t been possible, and he had to make a serious effort to remind himself that it was only for a few more days until the standard training was over and things settled back down. They were a couple of months into the new year and his resolution to be a better family had been holding strong, he wouldn’t let it fall through now.

He opened the door as quietly as sleepy fingers would allow so as to not wake Nanako, kicked off his shoes to lie haphazardly in the dark hallway, and trudged his way up the stairs to Souji’s room. He would only need a few whispered words of apology and to ask whether he could look after her for another couple of days, the hand-eye coordination to take the grocery money from his wallet and then he could haul himself the few meters down the corridor to the soft, sweet bed that he could picture with perfect clarity through the haze of his exhaustion.

The door slid open smoothly and his eyes gradually adjusted to the dim light in the room, peering to see whether he would be waking Souji up. He picked out the details individually, rapidly growing more awake as each new piece of information wormed its way into his mind.

Souji was awake, certainly. But not alone.

The horrified face of that Junes kid was staring back at him, mouth hanging open.

He made out skin, and a lot of it.

The Prince of Junes was balls deep in his nephew, who finally cottoned on and dropped his head back to see the door. They made eye contact.

He shut the door with a rattling snap.

His feet carried him back down the stairs purely on muscle memory, and he was still lost in a fog of confusion when he sat at the table with a coffee in hand. He poured a liberal glug of bourbon into the mug and absently swirled it around.

The first tangible thought that came to him was that this moment was never supposed to happen, or it should be years away. Nanako was still so young that it had never occurred to him with any sort of weight, but Souji had fit into their family so damn effortlessly he should have been ready for this.

Hanamura, that was it. Hanamura Yosuke. The awkward one. He’d never really considered Souji’s type, but who was he to judge? He seemed pretty sure in his own skin, and careful enough to make considered choices. They probably balanced out pretty well. And both guys, at that. Who would have thought. Looking back on it the kid did spend a lot of time at their house, with few girls coming over by themselves and the ones that did never really left the ground floor.

A memory came to him slowly, of a photo taped to the back of a workbook that had fallen open from the table and been snatched up with unusual speed. The photo of what he’d considered was a crush or girlfriend he hadn’t met yet. Short skirt, short hair. Dyed brown hair.

For fuck’s sake.

The kid called Souji his partner, on top of everything else. He must have really been slipping if he couldn’t pick up on what in hindsight were some heavy-handed clues.

The door upstairs scraped open and he could just make out faint susurration and the patter of feet trying to keep quiet before the two biggest obstacles to his sleep came around the corner; mercifully clothed, with Hanamura in a uniform that had been buttoned up out of order and Souji in pyjamas. Hanamura blustered his way over first, pulling up a chair on the opposite side of the table without a word and staring at the table top, pale and shaking like he was a step away from the gallows. Souji sauntered over in a manner that Dojima could only think of was calm, eased smoothly into the seat next to Hanamura and looked him square in the eye.

“I’m sorry that you had to see that, it must have been a shock,” he said without a moment of hesitation. “Yosuke is my boyfriend.”

There was a redness to his ears and a slight tremor to Souji’s hand as it lay fisted on the table top that was telling, now he was more alert and looking for signs. It was always so difficult to get a bead on Souji, but he had seen enough to know that just because he wasn’t always forthcoming with how he was feeling it did not mean he wasn’t unfeeling, and no way was he going to try and intimidate the poor kids. Beside him, Hanamura was saying something too quiet and fast to make out but gave the impression of an apology, his head almost bowed to the wood. The shock he felt walking in on such a private moment must have been nothing compared to theirs.

He sighed rather than responding and rubbed at the bridge of his nose to try and loosen some of the tension. He could feel his hard ass detective persona trying to come to the fore through the jolt to his system, and that’s not what any of them needed right now.

“No, it’s my own fault for coming in unannounced,” he said as lightly as possible, and tried to pull his face into something like a smile. It didn’t feel like a success.

“We won’t do it again,” Hanamura mumbled to the table.

“Don’t lie to me now,” he said and the kid started so hard Dojima thought he was going to bounce his skull off the wood. Damn, he hadn’t meant it to sound so harsh. He tried again.

“I was a teenager once too, you know! I’m aware how it is at your age, and how these things go. Or well, not maybe quite the same way,” he corrected himself and cringed. “Just please lock the door next time.”

They both nodded, and the tension creaking through Dojima’s muscles eased a little. He took a drink of coffee and was grateful for the double burn in his throat.

“Look, uh, Yosuke,” he said, and Hanamura snapped his head up, his eyes wide and staring. “I know you’re a good sport. You’re a pretty guy… a pretty good guy from what I’ve seen when you’re with Nanako, and you’ve got a good family, steady job and no criminal record; that stupid stunt in the food court is the only blot but I’m willing to put that down to stupid teen antics for now. You don’t need to be scared of me.”

Hanamura’s eyes opened just a fraction wider at that, and to the side of him Souji sat a little straighter; they must have known that Dojima wasn’t messing around when he had vetted them for the murder investigation, but this was a new type of vetting and new rules. It was familiar ground, but while he had interrogated Souji before, the change in context gave the encounter an atmosphere of unreality that set everything off-balance. He struggled to find the best line of questioning.

“So what is it you like about being in my nephew? Being with my nephew.” He cursed to himself, but his slip up was quickly eclipsed by Hanamura bursting into life across from him.

“Souji’s my best friend, sir, he’s smart and a good leader and kind and dependable and cool and…”

While Hanamura continued espousing his nephew’s virtues, Dojima was watching them. The words were less important than the passion they were said with, the way that Hanamura started to lean over the table to confide new great truths about his boyfriend, and how his eyes shone with pride and happiness. Beside him, Souji had calmed down completely and it was his turn to stare at the wood grain, his eyes warm and a smile spreading across his lips. That about answered it.

“Alright, alright,” he interrupted, and Hanamura shut his mouth so quickly his teeth clacked. “What are your intentions with him?”

Hanamura looked confused and turned to Souji to receive a tiny shrug.

“I don’t… what? We’re partners.” He said it like that explained everything. Dojima was overcome with heartsickness, full of memories of easy and endlessly optimistic teenage romance soured and broken with the passage of time.

“Yes, but he’s leaving in just over a month, what are you going to do then?”

Just over a month, because right at that moment it was the middle of February. The fourteenth; Valentine’s day. Damn it, he was a work-blind idiot.

Did two guys even celebrate Valentine’s, or did they give to each other on White Day? But on White Day Souji would be busy packing and saying his goodbyes. Fuck. He had picked the wrong day to sleep at home. He took another long drink and hoped that wasn’t the start of a headache he was feeling.

Souji was the one who spoke up this time.

“We’ve given it a lot of thought, and we’re going to make it work long-distance. Between texting and visiting each other whenever we can it will work. I’m not going to lose him.”

Yosuke looked like he would follow him into battle.

He sounded sure enough for all three of them, and he knew Souji enough to know there was probably some extensive planning going on behind the scenes. He could accomplish a hell of a lot when he put his mind to it, and there was no reason to scare them with stories of his own failed relationships when they would do better figuring it out by themselves.

“And are you going to stay in Inaba, Ha…Yosuke? Stay at Junes?”

“I was thinking about studying music in Okina,” he said, and Dojima had to stifle a groan. Deliver them from starving artists.

Hanamura looked away towards the television before starting again with more purpose.

“But now I want to protect people. I’ve been learning a lot over the past year about how much that means to me, and I think that’s what I want to do. I’m not sure how, but since I’ve been in the-”

He was obviously jostled by a leg and shut up in a hurry. Souji was watching both keenly but keeping quiet.

Now this was interesting, and a welcome improvement over struggling band member, but instinct told him that retrieving more information while Souji was standing guard would be more trouble than it was worth, and so he let it slide. He had harboured his suspicions about whatever their group of friends was up to for long enough that he could hold onto this for later.

He muffled a yawn into his mug, the caffeine and alcohol beginning to push and pull at his weariness, and let the silence stretch a little longer than was comfortable. Souji was still on high alert against who knew what but doing his best to appear casual, and Hanamura was back to being hard… rigid as a board. He really was too tired for this and decided to hammer the final nail into the coffin, so he could get to sleep and leave all these unexpected revelations behind him for the next day.

“Well, I see you’ve got the basics of the birds and the… birds down pat, and I can trust you both to be safe without explaining the details to you, can’t I?”

Hanamura instantly turned bright red and started making a noise somewhere between a stammer and cough while Souji stared him down with a flat “yes, we’re being safe.”

He could be such a strange kid sometimes. Maybe it was something in how his sister practiced child-rearing. Not something to be thought of now. Not tonight.

“At least you don’t have to worry about the time of the month!” he pushed and felt only a little guilty when Hanamura squawked and jettisoned himself from the table, then heaved what was obviously an overnight rather than book bag over his shoulder and stood at attention at Souji’s shoulder.

“I really think I should be getting home, goodnight Dojima-san, partner,” he said, with a final desperate look to Souji, then turned on his heel and marched out the front door; Dojima noted with appreciation that he had stopped himself at the last minute from slamming it. There was a beat, then the unmistakable sound of someone sliding down the panels and a quiet, mortified screech.

Souji turned to him, still perfectly cool.

“We’ll be fine, you don’t need to worry about us.”

“I’m not worried,” he replied, and meant it. “He’s an awkward kid but he’s honest and he’s sincere. And he obviously cares a lot about you. Just go out there already and pull him back in here before he catches a cold, and I’ll get the earplugs I use at the range.”

Souji nodded, a hint of a smirk to him as he placidly walked to the door and started murmuring through it.

Dojima poured more bourbon in his coffee and went again for the stairs, sure that nothing this time was going to get between him and the most well-earned rest of his life.


End file.
